Flutter: What Works, What Hurts & What You Should Know

🌟 Flutter in Real Life: What Works, What Hurts & What You Should Know

If you’ve ever wished you could build one app and run it everywhere — iOS, Android, web, desktop — then chances are you’ve heard of Flutter.

But is it as good as it sounds? Like anything in tech, Flutter has its highs and lows. In this blog, we’ll explore Flutter in the real world: the awesome parts, the annoying bits, and the deal-breakers — all explained in a simple way with relatable examples.

👍 What Makes Flutter So Awesome (The Good)

1. Build Once, Run Anywhere Imagine building an app for your startup. You want it on iOS and Android — but you don’t have the time or team to build both versions.

Flutter solves that. You write your app in Dart, and it runs beautifully across Android, iOS, web, Windows, macOS, and Linux. Example: A food delivery app made in Flutter runs on both Play Store and App Store without needing two different codebases.

2. Gorgeous UIs Made Easy Flutter doesn’t use native components like other frameworks. Instead, it draws every pixel from scratch — giving you full control of how your app looks and behaves.

Example: Say you want a custom animated button with a glow when tapped. In Flutter, you can design that exactly the way you imagined, without worrying about how Android or iOS renders it differently.

3. Hot Reload = Dev Superpower Let’s say you’re tweaking a layout. In native development, you’d hit save, rebuild, restart… wait 20 seconds.

With Flutter’s Hot Reload, you change the code and immediately see the update in your app — often in less than a second.

Example: You’re adjusting padding around a card. You tweak the value, save, and boom — you instantly see the new look.

4. It’s Fast. Really Fast. Flutter apps compile into native machine code, which makes them run smooth and fast — especially for rich UIs or animations.

Example: A finance app with real-time charts and graphs made in Flutter will feel buttery smooth even on mid-range phones.

5. A Helpful Ecosystem From packages to plugins to tutorials, Flutter’s community has grown fast. Need to add Firebase, Google Maps, or Stripe? Chances are, there’s a plugin for it.

Example: Want to send push notifications? You install the firebase_messaging package and get it running in minutes.

😐 Where Things Get Annoying (The Bad)

1. App Size Is Heavy from the Start Even a simple “Hello World” Flutter app takes up around 4-5 MB. That’s because it includes the Flutter engine inside it.

Example: If you’re targeting users with budget phones and slow internet (like in rural areas), this can be a concern.

2. Dart Is Cool, but Not Familiar Flutter uses Dart — a clean and modern language. But not many developers know it, so there’s a learning curve.

Example: If your team is already fluent in JavaScript or Swift, they’ll need time to adjust to Dart’s syntax and patterns.

3. You’ll Need Native Code Sometimes Flutter covers most use cases. But when it doesn’t, you’ll have to dive into native Android or iOS code.

Example: Want to read SMS messages or use a phone’s fingerprint sensor in a custom way? You might need to write Kotlin (Android) or Swift (iOS) manually.

4. Web and Desktop = Not There Yet Flutter’s mobile support is top-notch. But web and desktop are still catching up. Performance, responsiveness, and plugin support can lag.

Example: If you create a full e-commerce store in Flutter Web, you might face issues with SEO, page load time, or plugin compatibility.

😬 The Stuff That Might Make You Rethink (The Ugly)

1. Plugins Can Break or Be Outdated Flutter has thousands of plugins — but not all are created equal. Some are unmaintained, buggy, or missing features.

Example: A Bluetooth plugin may work fine on Android but crash on iOS, or only support basic features.

2. Too Many State Management Options Flutter doesn’t force one way to manage state. You have choices like Provider, Riverpod, Bloc, Redux, MobX, etc.

Example: A dev team might start with Provider, then switch to Bloc, and later adopt Riverpod, causing confusion and messy code.

3. Animations on Low-End Phones Can Lag Flutter is animation-friendly, but without proper optimization, things can slow down on older devices.

Example: A travel app with lots of page transitions and custom animations might work great on a Pixel 7 but feel janky on a budget Redmi device.

🤔 So, Should You Use Flutter? Here’s the short answer: ✅ Yes — if you want a cross-platform app that looks great, builds fast, and runs on almost anything. 🚫 Maybe not — if you need the smallest app size, deep native integrations, or cutting-edge SEO performance for web.

Great use cases for Flutter:

Startup MVPs

Internal business tools

UI-heavy apps

Apps that target both Android & iOS with a small team

✨Conclusion Flutter brings a lot to the table: fast dev time, slick UI, and one codebase for everything. But it also has quirks and challenges — especially around native access, web support, and plugin quality.

Use Flutter when it fits your goals — and go in with your eyes open. It’s not perfect, but in the right hands, Flutter can build magic. ✨